MUSCULAR MOVEMENT IN 
ITS PRACTICAL APPLICATION 

By MR. ANDREW W. EDSON 

Associate City Superintendent New YorktCity 
Public Schools 




THE A. N. PALMER COMPANY 

32 Union Square, - New York 
100 Boylston Street, - Boston 
151 Wabash Avenue, - Chicago 
Palmer Building, Cedar Rapids, la. 



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MUSCULAR MOVEMENT IN 
ITS PRACTICAL APPLICATION 



An Address by 

MR. ANDREW W. EDSON 

'I 
Associate City Superintendent, New York City Public 
Schools, Delivered at a Meeting of the Eastern 
Palmer Penmanship Teachers' Associa- 
tion, April 30. 1910. 



COPYRIGHT^ jqio, BY THE A, N, PALMER COMPANY 



MUSCULAR MOVEMENT IN ITS 
PRACTICAL APPLICATION 

I have wondered a good many times since 
Miss Spaulding invited me to speak at this 
meeting why on earth I accepted her invita- 
tion. I am reminded of a colored lady's con- 
versation over the telephone one day. The fol- 
lowing conversation ensued: "May I axe you 
a question?" "Sartainly." "Will you marry 
me?" "Sartainly. What a foolish question to 
axe, and, by the way, who air you?" 

I don't know as I need to ask who Miss 
Spaulding is, but I ask myself why I accepted. 
I wonder if she mesmerized me, or whether it 
was because I did not know enough to say 
"No." I get so used to saying "Yes" to some 
people. 

The fact of the matter is that I have long 
been deeply interested in the subject. At the 
time the Syllabus was prepared, penmanship 
teaching was threshed out by teachers, princi- 
pals and superintendents, until finally a more 
or less satisfactory compromise was agreed 
upon. Most of the work in the Syllabus is 
a compromise anyway, representing the views 
of many. As you read along in that Syllabus 
and notice what is said in reference to pen- 
manship, you might infer, and properly so, 
that if we were to write it again, we would 
modify our suggestions on all subjects very 

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materially. No doubt, here, you would be able 
and willing to give us a good many points. At 
that time we did not have any special help in 
this particular subject. 

Personally, I was one of the most reluctant 
in our system to drop the vertical. I had be- 
lieved in it for a long time, because of the 
fact that it had two good qualities — ease and 
legibility. It lacked, however, the element of 
speed. Business men were not satisfied with it. 
While the vertical seemed to me to be an im- 
provement over the Spencerian slant and it 
was the best on the market, I had to yield at 
last and say that there was something better. 
When Mr. Palmer came East and argued with 
us in reference to his method, we felt that he 
had a system well worth a trial. One of the 
characteristics of the New York schools is 
that the teachers are willing to give any 
method that appears to have merit in it a trial. 
Practically every text-book in print is in our 
New York schools. I like the freedom that is 
given to experiment, working on the theory 
that there are very few things definitely settled 
in the educational world. 

We often speak of the "three R's", and, of 
course, we always include writing as one of 
the three "R's. " Everybody is obliged to 
write. What a man's business is makes no dif- 
ference; he is obliged to write a great deal, 
even in the midst of typewriters and stenog- 
raphers. 

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1 go back to my early years when I taught 
in a district school in Vermont. I remember 
that one winter we had a great deal of rivalry 
in our penmanship work, because the superin- 
tendent of schools, an old gentleman who had 
taken a great deal of interest in the subject of 
penmanship, had offered prizes to the differ- 
ent schools showing the greatest proficiency 
and the greatest improvement. I have never 
been able to boast of my penmanship, as you 
know. I could not write then, but I was de- 
termined to awaken an interest in the subject. 
I had some pupils who wished to enter the 
competition. We made penmanship a serious 
business. One element of success in any work, 
is to make a serious business of it. One prize 
was to be given to the school that made the 
greatest improvement. The theory was that 
in order to measure progress, we should see 
what we did at the beginning and what we 
were able to do later. I remember that I 
wondered how one of the schools made such 
wonderful progress. I quietly made inquiry, 
not of the teacher but of some of the pupils. 
I asked them how they had made such prog- 
ress, and finally it leaked out that the first few 
specimens were purposely written in a very 
slovenly manner. They understood that 
progress was the one thing that must be 
shown. They gave poor work on the first ef- 
fort, and thus in their Yankee shrewdness 
demonstrated great progress. 

4 



One of the greatest objections to copy-books 
was indicated in a school in this city which I 
once visited. The principal, one of the noblest 
men in the profession, was a fine penman him- 
self, and was proud of it. I noticed in the 
copy-books that he had fine work right along, 
class after class; in truth, the penmanship in 
the copy-books was of a high order. He took a 
great deal of pride in it. But when I said to 
him one day, "Your writing is abominable," 
he said, "Do you mean the writing in this 
school is abominable?" I said I did, and he at 
once produced those sets of copy-books. I 
said, "That looks well enough, but just think 
of the labor used in doing the work, and the 
meager results attained. My test is what 
pupils do in letter writing and in the arithme- 
tic, spelling and other written tests. Take up 
any set of papers in any class in your school, 
and tell me frankly if you think that the pen- 
manship is creditable." He said that he 
judged largely from what the pupils could do 
in copy-books when under good supervision. 
There was the greatest difference possible be- 
tween the work in those copy-books and the 
work in the other written exercises. Each 
pupil took from thirty to forty minutes on a 
half page of six lines in the copy-books. Then 
when practical application of writing was 
made, it was anything but creditable. 

I feel that the meager results attained by 
copy-books had much to do with the cutting 

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out of all copy-books here in New York City. 
The only objection to mentioning the "Palmer 
Method" was the charge that might be made 
that we were giving the one house a monop- 
oly of the trade. We therefore dropped all 
copy-books, and then permitted the teachers to 
decide on the system of muscular movement 
as best they could. Of course, the pres- 
sure was strong from many sources not to drop 
copy-books. I do not believe, however, that 
these will come back. We are getting much 
better results without them. 

I notice that we have in our Syllabus 100 
J minutes per week for writing in the first year, 
125 minutes per week for the second and third 
years, 75 minutes per week in the fourth, fifth 
and six years, and no time mentioned for writ- 
ing in the seventh and eighth years. We have 
made some brief suggestions in regard to the 
study of form, handling of material, ease in 
arm movement, the blackboard and paper, 
spacing, etc. It is a question in the minds of 
many whether the inch spaces should be fol- 
lowed. I would not if I thought I had a better 
way. The Syllabus gives the general trend, 
but teachers should not hold literally to every- 
thing there. I think that it is not sensible in 
this large sysem with a school population 
greater than the entire population of any other 
city except Chicago and Philadelphia, and fifty 
per cent, larger than the school population of 
the whole State of Massachusetts, to try to 

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show in one small Syllabus what should be 
done in all sections of the city — the lower East 
side, the West side, and the suburbs. We do 
not expect anything of the kind, and the teach- 
ers who think we must do this are making a 
mistake; they are not using good sense. 

I notice in the Syllabus that there is no men- 
tion made of rapidity in penmanship until the 
sixth year. It was our thought then that pupils 
should pay no attention to speed at first. I 
think, however, that we are all convinced that 
speed should come earlier. 

In our training schools, we have penmanship 
in the first year ; I am sorry that we haven't it 
throughout the course, for at least one period 
each week. The other day I saw something of 
the work of the students in the New York 
Training School. I saw some beautiful work. 
I asked a young lady if she could write anything 
like that when she began. She said "Not a 
bit, nothing like that." She was very em- 
phatic. I have a feeling that if we could get 
all of our coming teachers in the training 
schools to give at least a period a week during 
the course to this muscular movement, we 
would have something at the close of the 
school course that we would be proud of. 

The business schools of New York are popu- 
lar because the pupils who come from them 
write well. Business men must have good pen- 
men. We ought to have thorough training in 
penmanship in our public schools as a part of 

7 



the regular course, even if thereby it is 
necessary to abbreviate some line of work in 
English. 

Miss Rector, in Public School No. 4, Man- 
hattan, has the credit of getting in early, and 
doing work in penmanship that is remarkable. 
I have often been down there to get test exer- 
cises. Some have said, "Oh, well, she gives so 
much time to it. She is giving two, three, 
or four times as much as others do, and is hold- 
ing up all other studies for the sake of pen- 
manship." This, Miss Rector says, is not so 
— that she gives only the time allowed by the 
Syllabus. However, I do not believe a person 
will lose in other studies by giving emphasis 
to penmanship, as good penmanship is a great 
labor-saving machine, helping students to 
write faster and do much better work in other 
lines. 

Another illustration — I know a young man 
who passed his examinations for a high school 
license successfully, very largely on the 
strength of his penmanship ; he is gifted in ex- 
pressing himself with his pen. I believe the 
Board of Examiners, trying to be as just as 
possible, must look with greater favor on a 
nicely written paper, than upon a sloppy paper. 
It is well worth while to take a great deal of 
time in penmanship until one can write 
just as easily as these little girls can (referring 
to the class that had been taught by Mr. 
Lister). All girls and boys ought to have 

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much practice in free muscular movement. 

One of the features I especially like in this 
system in that they who teach must undertake 
the work in the spirit of a learner, and master it 
themselves, though some teachers feel that they 
can teach just as well without learning it them- 
selves. And, furthermore, it is a satisfaction 
to be able to do creditable work in penman- 
ship. I do not know how much money I 
would give if I were a good penman, but it 
would be considerable. When teachers demon- 
strate to pupils their mastery of the subject, 
many of them will be inspired to make the 
effort It certainly is a great encouragement 
to the children to see the teacher do what she 
wishes them to do. 

I saw a letter the other day from one of the 
superintendents in New Hampshire. He said 
that he had required all his teachers to secure 
Palmer certificates ; that retention of their po- 
sitions depended upon it. In this place the 
penmanship throughout the grades must be 
good. And one of the teachers was sixty-five 
years of age! We can thus see what people 
can do if they will. 

J Again it appears to me that if the teacher is 
to master the subject and make a success of it, 
she must give time to it, and the class must 
give time to it. If the children are poor in it, 
it is perfectly proper to take time from other 
subjects temporarily. If I were a principal, I 
should insist upon this. 

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Mr. Palmer's pamphlets on penmanship are 
much better than they used to be, in that they 
give specific instructions to teachers. I have 
been reading the little red book and noticed 
how much better it is — how much stronger 
Mr. Palmer himself has grown. I have no 
doubt he is getting just as much out of this 
work from year to year as any of you are. 

From an educational or any other standpoint, 
we need some one who can take the work of 
teachers, criticize it, and return it to themx with 
directions for future practice. Many of us felt 
that we needed another supervisor, but the 
school authorities felt that they could not af- 
ford it. Mr. Palmer has done this work of his 
own accord, has given a great deal of time to 
it, and deserves credit therefor. 

But there is one 'thing we ought to have. In 
this city there ought to be greater uniform- 
ity. We ought not to have half a dozen dif- 
ferent systems. If this system is right, it 
should prevail. 

I wish to make one or two criticisms. I was 
in a school the other day where a good teacher 
of penmanship was missing the idea of the 
count. I watched him count, and I watched 
the pupils count. I watched the pupils as they 
wrote with their own counting, and noticed 
that they paid no attention to the counting, 
not one of them. I asked the teacher, "Did you 
notice that there was scarcely any one paying 
attention to the counting?" He said that he 

10 



had not noticed it. It seems to me that count- 
ing is a splendid thing if the children follow 
it. In this case the teacher was neglecting one 
element of considerable importance. 

One of the most discouraging features in this 
work is the wretched appearance of the pen- 
manship for the first few months. I suppose 
that this is one of the most discouraging fea- 
tures to all teachers. And many drop it, be- 
cause for a time the penmanship is not as good 
as it was at first. 

In a country school in Massachusetts, a plan 
was followed that worked well. The teacher 
had regular writing exercises during the week, 
but on each Friday afternoon she had the 
whole school write a certain paragraph from 
dictation. On every Friday, for twelve weeks, 
the pupils wrote the same paragraph of eight 
or ten lines. I studied the work from week to 
week to see the improvement, and I noticed re- k/ 
markable results. If a child writes the same 
word over and over again, in a single sentence, 
and writes well, he is prepared for other writ- 
ten work. It is not so much the quantity as 
the quality. Ease, legibility and speed follow 
hand in hand. 

In his briefer psychology. Professor James 
quotes from Bain on the subject of habit 
training : 

''First, launch yourself into the habit you 
aspire to gain with as strong and decided an 
initiative as possible. 

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"Second, never suffer an exception until the 
new habit is securely rooted in your life. 

"Third, seize the very first possible oppor- 
tunity to act on every resolution you makfe, 
and on every emotional prompting you may 
experience, in the direction of the habits you 
aspire to gain. 

"Fourth, keep the faculty of effort alive in 
you by a little gratuitous exercise every day." 

These four maxims followed in penman- 
ship will inevitably make a success of this, as 
it will of anything else. 

My main thought in coming here this after- 
noon is to encourage you teachers. I wish 
to see greater interest in this subject that is so 
vital, that is of so much practical value, that 
will help the boy or girl to make a living, and 
to engage in business successfully and profit- 
ably. 

I say simply this : So far as I have seen it in 
the schools where it has been thoroughly tried, 
we are getting splendid results, and to certain 
schools I am proud indeed to point and say, 
"That is what we are doing under normal con- 
ditions in our schools, where teachers and 
pupils are interested.' 



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